Disclaimer: None of the characters of Final Fantasy 12 belong to me. All copyright Square Enix and whoever made the games (My memory sucks, sorry.)
Sigill, however, belongs to me! Yay! Enjoy the first chapter of Saendal.
Rabanastre, year 706 Old Valendian. It seemed to be a peaceful morning to anyone who would take a look outside. The Sandsea Tavern was filled with early drunkards as usual and amateur hunters who wanted to earn some gil.
A Bangaa and a Seeq fought with seldom used words which no one could comprehend, using their own languages, just outside of Amal's weaponry.
Amal was the owner of the shop – a blacksmith as well as a traveling merchant. He had two daughters, none of them a day over 25. The older one, Mira, was very ladylike in her manner of speech and way of acting around others, never wanting to get her hands dirty, while the younger daughter, Sigill, followed in her father's footsteps of a blacksmith and behaved more like a man herself.
This day was one of the few days where Sigill would have to take care of the shop by herself. Amal had had an accident with a hammer, during the weekend when he one night came home too drunk and had decided to try to forge a new sword. Amal had accidentally picked up the sword without anything to protect him from the heat and burned himself. Thus, Sigill had to take over for a couple of days until her father could return to work.
This was perfectly fine with her; she had been trained since her younger days to forge different kinds of weapons and she was proud to say that she received a lot of praise from customers who had bought her items. Although nobody really knew that it was she who had made them, since no one in Dalmasca had heard of a decent female blacksmith – she told them her father had forged them. That way she could secretly take the praise the customer thought they gave her father.
Even her father was proud over her, and he felt relieved that she had become skilled in the art of steel. This made it a lot easier for Amal to take care of the house together with his wife and maybe soon he could even retire without a worry.
As she opened the shop, Sigill waved off her sister Mira who would go to the 'neighboring' city of Balfonheim to find a fiancée.
Sigill had always been slightly jealous of her older sister. Mira would always fool around with other guys, while Sigill never even had a Seeq look at her. Even a Bangaa wouldn't look two times at Sigill, much of which could be thanked for her blackened face, strong musculature and hardened hands.
Hume as she was, she let it be and proceeded to put up all the new swords, bows and staffs she had been working on the night before for selling.
"Excuse me!" A young boy's voice could be heard. Sigill shot her head up from a box behind the counter to welcome her first customer for today.
"Welcome! How may I be of service?" She asked with her usual, greeting smile.
Sigill took note of the hume boy, who couldn't be much younger than herself, and what seemed to be his friend. He had an open armored vest, showing off his toned abs. His blonde, spiky hair with bangs hanging down on each side framed his face. His smile was quite charming. She remembered that she had seen him before. He was one of the boys who worked for Migelo. Migelo would often send a small amount of gil with him to buy some weapons. Although Sigill had never been this close to him – this was the first time since the war that she'd been granted to keep track of the shop, therefore she had only seen him from afar while her father was at work and she herself stood in the back forging. His friend was of female gender – also a hume. Blonde too, with pigtails. A yellow and dark-blue-ish one-piece suit, although nothing more noteworthy according to Sigill.
"I'm looking to re-equip, and I wanted to see if you had a Longsword or two, as well as a Healing rod and a Crossbow." His voice was smooth but sounded kind of nervous.
Sigill smiled back at him, pondering whether or not she had any Healing rods in store.
"Sure thing, just give me a second and I'll have a look. I know for sure there are a couple of Longswords hanging on a rack just by the entrance, so feel free to grab the ones you fancy."
The boy did as he was told. He and his 'girlfriend' went to the entrance to look for the weapons as Sigill went out in the back to search for the Healing rod. She had already found the Crossbow when she heard a big crash out in the shop followed by an intimidating voice.
"You better not be causing any trouble out there! I'll make you pay for every little piece of scrap metal there is if you do!" Sigill threatened the youngsters as she grabbed her trusty hammer which she used when she was forging. She had forgotten to hang it on her waist when she opened up, so she did that now instead. It made her feel more at ease. Didn't really happen much if she had it beside her at all times – not many would go up against a furious woman with a hammer.
She went out to see what had happened, since they didn't respond to her threats. All she could hear was steel against steel as she tried to get to the entrance.
All of a sudden the boy rushed over to her, holding his broken dagger against her throat as his other hand took a firm grip around her own. She glanced at his female friend questionably and noticed that his wrath was not really aimed at herself, but an Imperial Guard who stood beside her by the door
"Let us go or I'll slit her throat!" The boy shouted at the Imperial.
"Such a peasant as yourself couldn't possibly sink any lower." The Imperial growled.
"Vaan, we have to go! We can't stay here!" The girl shouted from behind the Imperial.
Vaan, who still had Sigill in an iron grip, ran out of the shop before the Imperial could even react. Neither did Sigill have a chance to reflect on what just happened. All she knew was that all of a sudden she was being dragged in all haste all across Rabanastre. From East end to the West Gate. More and more Imperials gathered along the way to try stop them, although Vaan and the girl apparently knew what they were doing. They seemed to know every nook and cranny of the city.
Several detours later, Sigill found herself gazing upon one of the most beautiful ships in all of Ivalice. She wondered if it flew as gracefully as it looked. It was truly a remarkable ship. Although she didn't have much time to admire the ship, as Vaan dragged her aboard the magnificent airship without a single thought.
The board walk was closed behind her and before she knew it, she was standing, panting, in the cockpit of an airship. Had she just been taken hostage?
"Vaan! Penelo! It's about damn time you two showed up! We've had those dimwits on our heels for half an hour, waiting for you two to get back!" Another blonde, muscular man who seemed to be in his 30s showed up in front of them.
The man grabbed the two youngsters and ordered them to sit down and buckle up. After which he ran over to the board walk to ensure everything had closed up properly.
"We're good to go!" He shouted back to the cockpit.
A Viera showed up from nowhere, running in her black stilettos to the cockpit, sitting down in one of the seats and began to hammer away at the dashboard.
"30 seconds to lift-off." She stated, her red eyes flashing over the screens and out on the landscape as she did.
"Fran, I need you to ensure that the sub-engine is stable." A third man commanded, flicking a couple of switches above his head and pulling a lever to his right.
"I've already checked it, and I believe it will hold at least for a quick escape – we will have to repair it afterwards if anything goes wrong." The Viera replied.
"Good." The man responded, running his fingers through his hair. "Ladies and gentlemen, get ready for take-off. We're about to exit the stage."
"Wait, what? I- I… There's no seat for me!" Sigill panicked, staggering around in the cockpit behind everyone else, trying to get someone's attention.
Sadly, no one seemed to hear her over the turbulence and ruckus caused by the Imperials banging on their 'back door' and the yelling from the man in the cockpit, who seemed to be the captain, ordering everybody around during the last seconds before taking off into the sky, leaving the hangar behind them with a great dust cloud created by the liftoff as the only evidence of them ever being there.
And there we have the first chapter! Rate and Review, so I know if I should write/upload more. I have at least 9 chapters planned for now, so that's good, I guess.
Sorry for the short chapter, but I find it better that way.
